Embodiments of the present invention provide a column-oriented database processing method, where a column-oriented database includes a marker column and more than one data column, the data column is used to store specific data in a column store manner, a value of a marker bit of each row in the marker column is used to indicate validity of data that is located in a same row as the marker bit, and the method includes: receiving a query request sent by an application program, where the query request contains a query condition; querying the more than one data column according to the marker column and the query condition to obtain a query result that meets both the query condition and a requirement that a marker bit of the query result in the marker column is valid; and sending the query result to the application program.